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News
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Doc Watson won
the Traditional Folk Indie Award (for his Legacy album with
David Holt) at the Association for Independent Music Indie Awards
held in Orlando, Florida, on March 19. The reunited Flatlanders
snagged the Americana prize for Now Again, Alison Krauss
picked up the Bluegrass trophy for Union Station Live, and
banjo and guitar picker Alison Brown's Quartet won the Acoustic
Instrumental award for Replay.
The New School University's
Jazz Program honored veteran guitarist Les Paul with a Beacon
in Jazz Award on April 1. The fleet-fingered Paul, who introduced
multitrack recording in 1948, earned the title "father of the electric
guitar" when Gibson introduced its solid-body Les Paul model in
1952. Paul, 88, still performs two shows every Monday night at the
Iridium Jazz Club in Manhattan.
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Events
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Classical guitarist Sharon Isbin
will perform works by Vivaldi and Boccherini, plus Tan Dun's Seven
Desires for Solo Guitar, August 2, at the Aspen Music Festival
in Aspen, Colorado, and on August 8, as part of SummerFest La
Jolla, July 30—August 18 in La Jolla, California. For complete
schedules, go to www.aspenmusicfestival.com
and www.ljcms.org.
Ukulele players unite! Ukulele
Expo 2003, presented by the Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum, takes
place August 8—10 at Rhode Island College in Providence. In
addition to workshops, open mics, and performances by Ukulele Dick,
Shorty Long, the Ukes of Hazzard, and the tap 'n' uke duo Ham and
Legs, among others, the museum will unveil the world's largest playable
uke, a rope-bound model standing more than 20 feet tall. Pluck the
details from www.ukulele.org.
Paulo Bellinati and Ricardo
Peixoto will offer guitar instruction in samba, bossa nova,
chorinho, and other styles at the California Brazil Camp,
August 24—31, tucked in the redwoods two hours north of San
Francisco in Cazadero, California. For information, go to mameluco.com/cbc.
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New
Releases
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Although it doesn't
include the Algerian-born guitarist's recipes (as did his previous
compendium, The Guitar Book), Parisian fingerstyle master
Pierre Bensusan's new publication, The Intuite Guitar
Book (DADGAD Music, www.pierrebensusan.com),
does feature his original color photographs and personal notes on
technique as well as the musical notation and tablature for all
11 tracks from his award-winning Intuite CD.
Revered Texas singer-songwriter
Townes Van Zandt has been getting the royal reissue treatment
since his death in 1997, and now Compadre Records (www.compadrerecords.com)
has come up with In the Beginning, ten Hank Williams—, Lightnin'
Hopkins—, and Bob Dylan—influenced demo tracks from 1966,
two years before Van Zandt's official recording debut.
Mel Bay (www.melbay.com)
has published John McGann's new instruction book/CD Developing
Melodic Variations on Fiddle Tunes, Guitar Edition. It's
also available directly from the website (www.johnmcgann.com)
of this versatile guitarist (Wayfaring Strangers, Beacon Hillbillies,
Rust Farm, Parallel Universe Orchestra).
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In
Memory
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Although she preferred
piano and harpsichord music, Rose Augustine left an indelible
mark on the guitar by helping develop the nylon string (out of fishing
filament) with her guitar-making husband, Albert Augustine, after
World War II. A close friend of classical guitar greats Andrés
Segovia and Julian Bream, Augustine, a Bronx native, became a champion
of younger artists and, in her later years, generously underwrote
concerts and commissioned new compositions for guitar. She died
on April 21 in Manhattan at age 93.
Country Music Hall of
Fame songwriter Felice Bryant, co-writer of the 1957 Everly
Brothers chart-toppers "Wake Up Little Susie" and "Bye Bye Love"
and the Buddy Holly hit "Raining in My Heart," died April 22 at
her home in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, at age 77. Nashville's pioneer
female composer, Felice and her husband Boudleaux Bryant (who died
in 1987) penned more than 800 songs, including the bluegrass anthem
"Rocky Top" and hits for Little Jimmy Dickens, Eddy Arnold, Jim
Reeves, George Jones, and Chet Atkins.
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Contests
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Veteran record producer
Arif Mardin (Norah Jones), rocker Rob Thomas (Matchbox 20), industry
executive Bruce Lundvall (Capitol Records), and producer-performer
Nile Rodgers (Chic) will pick 68 winners in 13 categories for the
2003 International Songwriting Competition (www.songwritingcompetition.com).
Entries must be submitted by September 15.
August 15 is the deadline
for entries in the amateurs-only Open Strings Guitar Competition.
Five finalists will be invited to perform at the Open Strings Guitar
Festival, October 4—5 in Osnabrück, Germany. The grand
prize winner—soloist or group—will have a CD produced
by and released on Acoustic Music Records. Application details are
available at www.open-strings.de.
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Cyber
Notes
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Gregg Miner's Knutsen
Archives (home.earthlink.net/~chrisknutsen)
is an online museum dedicated to harp guitar builder Chris Knutsen.
The site includes historical information and extensive photographs
of Knutsen's instruments.
German luthiers Uli
Albert and Toni Müller offer printable and downloadable PDFs
of blank guitar and mandolin tab paper, standard notation
paper, and chord diagram sheets in their A&M Cafe (www.albert-mueller.de/cafe/print/print.html).
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Meet
A.G.
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Click
here to meet the Acoustic Guitar team at a wide variety upcoming
music events and trade shows. Listed below are some things happening
in the next few weeks.
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Excerpted from Acoustic
Guitar magazine, August
2003, No. 128.
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Got some news? Send it to Happenings, Acoustic
Guitar, PO Box 767, San Anselmo, CA 94979-0767; email happenings.ag@stringletter.com;
or fax (415) 485-0831.
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